Owensboro Health Now Offers Banjoleles For Patients

By Ken Silva, Messenger-Inquirer

Owensboro Health patients can now learn how to play the banjolele during their stay, thanks to a new initiative from the hospital and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum.

Owensboro Health billings supervisor Lauren Calhoun, who sits on the hospital’s Arts in Healing Committee, said the banjolele pilot program started several weeks ago on the hospital’s med-surg floor. The program is the brainchild of Bluegrass Music Museum Education Director Randy Lanham.

Calhoun said patients can request a banjolele from their nurse or caregiver. The banjolele comes with a booklet, and the hospital has on-demand instructional videos that teach patients how to tune the instrument, strum, and play, she said.

“There’s also opportunity to play along with a band that was prerecorded at the Bluegrass Museum,” she said.

Calhoun added that the new program at Owensboro Health is loosely modeled after a similar initiative at Duke University Hospital, which offers ukulele lessons for patients.

“We decided to use banjoleles for the Owensboro flair,” she said of the hybrid banjo-ukulele contraption.

Not only is the banjolele in keeping with local culture, Calhoun also said it’s relatively easy to play, and can be learned from the video instructionals the hospital offers.

“You can become proficient with the instrument within minutes,” she said.

According to Calhoun, music and art can improve patient outcomes. She cited a recent analysis from the World Health Organization, which aggregated some 3,000 articles about the benefits of art and music for health.

“I think we all intuitively know that,” she said. “If you’ve ever listened to a music playlist to pump you up for a workout, then you’ve experienced the benefits of music.”

However, Calhoun stressed that the program is not “music therapy,” which is specifically intended to improve health. Rather, this is a program to ease patients’ boredom and anxiety while they’re at the hospital, and for them to perhaps pick up some musical skills along the way, Calhoun said.

“It’s not for someone in a crisis moment,” she said. “It’s just to improve the patient experience while they’re in the hospital, and maybe make it a little less stressful or trying for them.”